


Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Weep & Gnash

by Fridiso



Category: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 06:36:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21266651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fridiso/pseuds/Fridiso
Summary: Some guy turns blue. He doesn't want to be blue, so he goes and tries to be some other color. Even with the help of a new friend, he discovers that becoming not-blue is actually very difficult.This fanfiction is meant to be rational. "Rational" is a loaded term that different people interpret differently, but most of what I mean by that is that this story will try to prioritize certain conventions that some other rational stories also use, and that I hope that people who like those stories will like it too.Basic familiarity with the universe of the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games is suggested but not required for reader enjoyment.I hope to update on a weekly basis.This story is dedicated to Eiffel 65.





	Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Weep & Gnash

A snout.

The overwhelming darkness surrounding me wasn’t enough to disguise it. It was big, it was blue, and apparently it was mine. 

The air around where I had woken up was cold and humid, and the floor felt like rock, giving me the immediate impression that I was inside a cave. It was excruciatingly dark, but not completely, a thin stream of orange light flowing in from a small hole on the ceiling.

The stream met the ground far from where I was standing and landed on a small puddle. With nothing else in sight and an absolute _ need _ to see my face, I stood up and moved towards it.

The effort brought forward many observations. I was naked. My skin felt like tough rubber, and my limbs were ridiculously short and stubby, my fingers no better. Something that probably wasn’t not a tail stretched out behind me and dragged against the ground as I walked, a weight that followed me.

I ignored every sensation, delaying my reaction until I got a decent look at myself. I had to see. Everything could be dealt with, I hoped, if I knew what I was working with.

I somehow made it to the puddle. I held my breath and looked down.

It was bad.

I was even bluer than the darkness had led me to believe, ninety percent of my head falling into the category of snout or jaw. My tongue was huge, and I used it to explore the boundless chasm that my mouth had become, eight razor-sharp teeth spaciously spread throughout my gums.

I was a Pokemon. It wasn’t one that I had any problem recognizing.

“You are inside my cave. Please leave my cave.”

I turned around to face the voice that had addressed me. They were too far from the light for me to make out anything more than a pair of round white eyes, both staring straight into my soul.

“Wheeerrahh…”

The new arrangement of my mouth did not allow me to speak in the way that I was used to, and I began to panic, confronted with the idea that I wouldn’t be able to tell the person in front of me that I wasn’t actually a Totodile. 

I tried adjusting. The loss of my incisors prevented me from forming many consonant sounds, but I quickly found with experimentation that my snout allowed me to use the internal edges of my mouth as a substitute. Every sound that a human could produce was possible, but the movements were different, requiring me to maneuver my tongue around my soft palate in a way that felt almost alien.

I figured it all out in a matter of seconds, which was insane. I wanted to explain it away by assuming that I had managed to tap into my new body’s muscle memory, but that didn’t make any sense. How would a Pokemon have any muscle memory for speech?

“Where am I?”

My voice was high-pitched and cutesy, carrying a rumble from my throat that made it croak. It was decidedly unmanly, and I instantly hated it.

“I already told you. You are inside my cave. Please leave my cave.”

The voice of whoever was speaking to me was lower, but clearly identifiable as a girl’s. I was practically standing in the light, so even though I couldn’t see her, she had to be able to see me. For someone having a conversation with a talking Totodile, she sounded much calmer than she had any right to be.

“Can you see me? I’m…”

Not wanting to finish the sentence, I waved both of my stubby arms in the air, attempting to bring home the point.

“Inside my cave. Yes, I agree. Please leave my cave.”

I was beginning to detect a pattern. I chose to be more direct.

“I know how I look, but I’m a human who woke up and turned into… this. I need help.”

The eyes blinked at me.

“Please leave my cave.”

“I’m a talking Totodile! How are you not freaking out about this?”

“You are wrong. I am very uncomfortable because of this situation. I do not want you to be inside of my cave but you are still inside my cave even though I have asked you multiple times to leave. I do not want anything to do with you or your group. You are a liar and a crazy person. Please leave my cave.”

I sighed. I was talking with a nut that lived inside a cave. 

“...Is there anyone else here? Someone who can help me? ”

She ignored me.

“I am going to throw a Gravelerock. It will land on the ground and make a noise. Go to the spot where you hear the noise, and then I will throw another Gravelerock. If we repeat this pattern five times, it will take you to the exit of my cave.”

The eyes blinked, and I heard something hit the ground behind me.

“I only need some help. If not from you, from someone_. _Can you just tell me-”

“If you do not start moving I am going to physically attack you. I do not want to do this, but you are a liar and a crazy person and I am very uncomfortable with you or anyone from your group being inside my cave.”

“I’m not with any group. I’m...”

I trailed off, suddenly realizing that I did not know many important pieces of information.

My name, for one.

“You are a liar and a crazy person and I do not believe you. Please leave my cave so that I do not need to attack you. If you are assuming that I only have four Gravelerocks left because of my earlier instructions, you are wrong. I have many Gravelerocks and they can all be used to hurt you.”

The eyes blinked again, and she threw another rock. It didn’t hit me, but it whizzed inches to the left of my head, close enough for me to feel the air shift around it.

“Please do not go to the spot where that Gravelerock landed. It was not a throw meant to direct you to the exit of my cave. It was also not a throw meant to hurt you. I intentionally threw it so that it would miss you but only by a negligible distance. I am trying to demonstrate that I could hurt you very easily if I had to but that I also hope to avoid conflict. Please tell me that you understand.”

“...I understand.”

“Okay. I am going to throw another Gravelerock now. Please follow my earlier instructions and use the noise it creates to leave my cave.”

I followed the noise it made without another word, not eager to have a rock smash into my face. She wasn’t going to help me, and it wasn’t worth getting into a fight. I would hopefully find someone who wasn’t an insane cave hobo to assist me.

We repeated the process four times, and as promised, we soon rounded a pair of sharp corners that opened up to a tunnel filled with light. 

I saw the outside. Not far from the mouth of the cave was a body of water.

A small figure stood outside the entrance. Not wanting to be seen, I took a wobbly step backwards into the darkness.

“Again, do not try to go back or I will attack you. I do not want what you are offering and there is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise. Please leave my cave.”

“There’s a Pokemon in the way. It’s probably wild, and I don’t want to go near it.”

As it currently stood, I was also a Pokemon. The last thing I wanted to do was approach it. If it was wild, I had no way of knowing how it would react to my presence. I had no idea how to defend myself, and if it attacked I’d be completely out of luck.

I turned back to try and face Cave Hobo, no longer able to see her eyes.

“What kind of Pokemon is it? If you do not know, tell me how many noses they have.”

I poked my head back out around the corner, trying to get an answer. My perspective had felt wrong since my awakening, but the darkness kept me from figuring out why. Trying to look at a specific object in the light made it obvious.

My eyes were on the sides of my head, not the front. Paradoxically, if I wanted to see what was directly in front of me, I had to turn my head slightly to the side. It was unintuitive, but it worked.

“It’s a Cyndaquil.”

“I thought he was with your group.”

I took a step towards her.

“For the last time, I’m not-”

Another rock whizzed by my head. It was closer than the first had been.

I shut my mouth, turned around, and began to speed-toddle out of the cave. I zipped past the Cyndaquil in front of the cave and the rocky floor beneath my feet become sand, the light from a late sunset forcing me to close my eyes.

I opened them again seconds later, an ocean stretching out in front of me. I turned while running to get a look at the Cyndaquil, which had started to follow me.

Not stopping, I took in my surroundings. The cave I had exited was at the bottom of a tall cliff that marked one of the beach’s edges, leaving me with no place to run aside from the ocean and alongside the coast. 

I chose land. My body likely would have been good at swimming, but I didn’t want to go through the hassle of figuring out how it worked while being chased. Instead, I chose to bet on my ten minutes of waddling experience, hoping that it would translate into a successful escape.

It did not. I tripped almost immediately, taking a hard tumble into the sand and landing flat on my back.

“Wait! Please!”

I didn’t move, staring at the sky. It talked.

I remembered that the girl in the cave had been facing me at eye level. The girl who lived in a cave, who hadn’t found the idea of a talking Pokemon worth even a passing comment. The girl who, upon reflection, could not have possibly been human.

I closed my eyes and tried to savor the glow of the sun as I waited for it to catch up to me. I hoped and hoped, but by the time I opened my eyes, I still hadn’t woken up.

My skull was a triangle, my identity was a mystery, and I was blue, figuratively and literally.

It wasn't a color I hoped to stick with.

* * *

After I picked myself back off the ground, the Cyndaquil and I spent a long awkward minute staring at each other. It stood on two legs and leaned forward, trembling.

“Hi," he eventually said.

“Hi.”

“You’re not going to bite me, right?”

I looked at him, raising an eyebrow that I realized I didn’t have. Was that something Pokemon usually asked each other?

“I’m not planning on it,” I responded. “Are you going to try and hurt me?”

He shook his head.

“No. I’m sorry if I gave you that impression. I’ve… never met a Totodile before, but I’ve heard plenty of the stories. I didn’t know that there were ones like you.”

I felt... weirdly offended.

“Like me?”

“Oh, um. You know. You’re not trying to...”

He looked off in the direction of the ocean, clearly eager to change the subject.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said, shaking my head. “Listen. I need help. Are there any humans around here? It’s extremely important that I speak with a human.”

He looked at me, frowning.

“Please,” I said. “Anyone will do. Is there a town near here? Do you have a trainer?”

“...I heard what you were saying in the cave.”

“What?”

“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, I promise! I was standing in front of that cave for a long time, trying to work up the courage to go inside… it smelled so terrible in there, there was no way I was going to be able to do it! But there was also no way I could give up on helping her. I tried calling out for her to speak with me, but she told me to leave, so I waited and waited… and then I saw it.”

“Saw what?”

He pointed to the sky.

“A star! It was a star… even though it wasn’t night yet, a ball of light popped up in the sky. It was tiny, but it got bigger and bigger… like it was falling towards the ground! I thought that maybe it was a Pokemon, since it stopped right before it would have hit the sand, and it kept floating there. I tried talking to it, but it started moving. It went into the cave. I tried to follow it, but again, the smell was too intense...”

“The cave didn’t smell like anything,” I said.

“I’m not calling you a liar, but that’s not true. I’ve never smelled anything as bad as what was inside that cave. I think I would have fainted if I tried going inside… I don’t have a clue how you stayed there for as long as you did.”

My snout came with a pair of nostrils, and I didn’t remember anything about the species I had become beyond the fact that they existed, but I had no reason to think that they wouldn’t be able to smell. I tried reasoning it out.

I was standing on a beach. I couldn’t remember ever having been at any particular beach, but I remembered the concept, identifying the memories of the sensations that came with being at one. The feeling of warmth, hot sand, cool water. The smell of the air, and the taste of the water… salty.

“Are we on an island?”

“Uh,” he said, seemingly confused by my question. “Yes. This is Dhelmise Island. I’ve only been here for a day, but I was told they call it that because it’s shaped like one. I don’t think any of them live here, though.”

The name Dhelmise evoked no recognition in me, and I didn’t care. I turned to the water.

“And that’s the ocean, correct?”

He nodded.

I didn’t smell the salt. I walked several steps to the water’s edge and dipped my stubby fingers in it, tasting. 

Nothing. It was me, not him.

“Okay,” I said. “Never mind about the smell. You were talking about the star. Continue, please.”

“Yeah. It went into the cave, and I couldn’t follow it, and she didn’t answer me when I tried asking about it. I told myself that I would wait until it got dark, but I heard voices just as the sun started to set. You and her. Sounds crazy, but I don’t think there are any other entrances to this cave, and I don’t think you were in there before. I think you might be, um…”

I interrupted him.

“You heard us clearly? The whole conversation?” 

“I think so. The cave echoed pretty loudly. You said that…”

He slowly closed his mouth, not wanting to finish the thought.

That made two of us.

“That I’m a human who turned into a Pokemon.”

“Yeah. Is that... true?”

I gave a tiny nod.

“I didn’t know humans were real,” he said. “I’ve never seen one. I’ve never even met someone who said they saw one.”

I frowned and my eyes went wide. He took note.

“Totodile. Or, um. Maybe I shouldn’t call you that… sorry. Do you have a nickname? I should have asked you earlier.”

“I don’t remember.”

“Oh.”

Neither of us said anything. In our silence, the waves peacefully slid against the shore, the tide leaving with the sun.

“Everyone calls me Cyn,” he said. “It’s simple, shortening it up. I’ve met a lot of Pokemon who do it like that. We could call you To. Just until you get your old name back.”

I didn’t like it, but I also didn’t care that much. There were bigger problems to deal with.

“Okay.”

“Good. You have a name now. Do you remember anything else, maybe? About who you were before?”

We went through everything together, question after question, working until the sun went down and the stars came out.

I didn’t know my name. I didn’t know where I was from, the friends or family I might have had, or why I might have ended up becoming a Totodile. I didn’t know what I looked like. I didn’t know what I liked or disliked, I didn’t know who I was.

I knew that I was a human male. That was about all I was getting. 

After we had gone through enough questions to completely exhaust my spirit, I toppled over backwards, letting my pathetically small body hit the sand. Cyn got down sat next to me. He wasn’t touching me, but I could feel the warmth that his body radiated in the air surrounding him.

“I’m sorry that this happened to you, To.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what _ to _say. I was still trying to hold onto the unlikely hope that I was asleep, but every passing second took me farther away from the chance of that being the case.

I was tired.

“It’s getting late. I should-”

“Go. It’s fine. I’ll figure out what to do myself.”

He shook his head.

“I’m not going to leave you. That would be awful. I’m not… I don’t have the perfect solution to your problem.”

“I know.”  
  
“But I have a pretty good one.”

He reached over and forced something small into my hands. It was hard to grasp objects, but I still had a thumb that I could get away with calling half-opposable, so it wasn’t impossible. I held it up to my eyes to get a good look at it.

It was a triangle-shaped badge, tinted a bright silver. It reflected the moonlight.

He stood up.

“I’m a member of a special group. To be honest, I only recently joined myself, but I’m as passionate about what we do as anyone. It might sound corny, but I believe in what we do with all my heart. Being a member… in many ways, I think it saved my life. That isn’t an exaggeration.”

I looked up at him.

“What does your group do?”

He smiled.

“It’s hard to explain. To put it in simple terms, we help Pokemon. No matter how big of a mess they might be in, no matter who they might be. If they’re weak or strong or little or big… or a former human. No matter what, we try our best to provide help."

“And you want your group to help me?”

He shook his head.

“I want you to join, and help us help others. We’ve got so many intelligent Pokemon in our group, I’m sure one of them will be able to figure out how we can get you back to normal. And until you solve your problem, you can travel with us. I’m sure our leader would approve. We’re always looking to recruit, and I'm assuming that you don't have any other place to stay, so I think it makes the most sense.”

“When you say help…”

Again, he shook his head. He was determined.

“To. Before you get concerned about all the details… you should understand. The girl in that cave… the reason she was acting the way she was is because she hates the group we’re in, even when we were trying to help her. Many Pokemon today… they can’t stand us. They can’t trust anyone who says that they want to do good, and I don’t blame them for it, with the way the world is today. With the small amount of traveling I’ve done since joining… I understand. I hate the reality we have to face. It’s filled with misery and unhappiness and terrible confusing things that happen to Pokemon that don’t deserve it. Sickness, hunger, crime, mystery dungeons… I can’t stand them. But I want to end all that, or at least do whatever I can to minimize it. That’s what our group is really about, at its core. Helping. Helping and teaching others how to help.”

“But you can’t help me,” I pointed out. “I sympathize. I do. But there’s no reason to think-”

“We can _ try _,” he stressed. “And I only say this because it’s true, and because I think you’re tired and sad and not thinking right, but really. What other option do you have?”

I didn’t have a good answer to that. I had one bad answer, and it ended with me having a rock catapulted into my skull.

Off we went to look for the helpers.


End file.
